An advert by animal rights activists Peta featuring a coffin-shaped pasty has been slammed by obesity campaigners as a "laughable" endeavour to highlight other people's misfortune.
The ad by Peta (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals), which features on a billboard in Gloucester, shows a pastry-topped coffin case with the slogan "Not Ready To Meat Your Maker?" in gothic script.
Advertising veganism as a way to combat obesity, the animal campaigners placed the billboard in Gloucester following the announcement of a new super sized morgue, built to cope with obese corpses.
The mortuary opened in January, designed to carry obese corpses weighing up to 50st on its wider slabs. Before heavier corpses had to be carted to nearby Shire Hall or the Four Seasons conference centre in Cheltenham.
However Tam Fry from the National Obesity Forum told the BBC that such an advert was insensitive:
“We want to do all we can to lessen obesity but I do not think it appropriate at all to draw attention to it in this manner.”
Hammy? The advert targets obese people
Peta however pointed the research that showed eating animal products was linked to obesity, insisiting that the only healthy weight-loss plan to take weight off and keep it off for more than a year is a vegan diet.
"Peta's new billboard highlights how meat pies and pasties have been linked to obesity and other ailments", said Yvonne Taylor, a spokeswoman for the campaign.
"The best thing that coffin dodgers can do for their health and to help animals is to go vegan".
Peta are no stranger to controversial campaigns to highlight their cause. Take a look through another of their campaigns below, when Sophie Barratt, crowned Europe’s sexiest vegetarian protested against eating meat, by strutting round central London wearing only a pair of skimpy knickers and heels.